Article 15: Right to freedom of association and assembly

States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.
No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

-UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Overview of Article 15

Article 15 asserts that the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly, first established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and subsequently included in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and many other international and regional human rights treaties, applies equally to children[1]. Article 15 rights apply to children in the context of their engagement in political and social activities with others, including political demonstrations, and associations such as youth groups, sports clubs, child led groups, political parties, working children’s organisations and movements, as well as informal association and assembly through family, friendships and social networks, both on and offline. It also covers the right to access public spaces [1]. Article 15 is one of the core civil and political rights in the CRC that, together with Article 12, combine to create the concept of ‘participation’. It is a qualified right: paragraph 2 outlines the restrictions on its exercise where deemed necessary for public safety and security.

The use of the term ‘recognise’, consistent with the wording in Article 21 of ICCPR, affirms that the right to association and peaceful assembly is a fundamental human right rather than a provision that the State can grant [2]. It is, accordingly, a strong formulation and implies positive obligations on States to take reasonable steps to protect this right. Moreover, children’s lack of autonomy and different legal status from adults requires additional measures by States to facilitate and protect freedom of association and assembly [2]. Where Article 15 differs from the ICCPR is in its failure to include an explicit articulation that freedom of association extends to the right to join a trade union, although none of the limitations outlined in paragraph 2 would justify a prohibition on children so doing.

[1] Article 2, Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Articles 21 & 22, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Core attributes of Article 15

The core attributes of Article 15 are:

Freedom of association
Freedom of assembly
Restrictions limited to compliance with democratic interests

Each of these attributes can be measured in terms of structural or process implementation or in terms of outcomes achieved through implementation as outlined in the table below. Some indicators, for instance the structural ones, may be common to all attributes. Others are common to two or more attributes, while some indicators may be relevant to one attribute only. An attempt has been made to balance the use of objective and subjective data indicators as well as qualitative and quantitative ones.

What did children say?

These are some ideas that children from around the world shared with us during the Global Child Rights Dialogue (GCRD) project:

Relevant provisions within the SDGs

No relevant SDG provisions have been identified for this article.

Potential sources of data for users of the indicators sets

National constitution and legislation
National surveys and census data
Police data
Primary research and data collection by National Human Rights Institutions for Children
Primary research and data collection by NGOs
Primary research and data collection by universities
School data
Trade union data

References used for the overview

United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2017). General Comment No.21 on children in street situations (CRC/C/GC/21), (para. 36). Retrieved from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights website: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fGC%2f21&Lang=en
Daly, A. (2016). Article 15: The Right to Freedom of Association and to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly. In A. Alen, J. Vande Lanotte, E. Verhellen, F. Ang, E. Berghmans, & M. Verheyde (Eds.), A Commentary on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,(p.28-30). Leiden, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

References used to create indicators

Former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. (2017). Monitoring and protecting assembly and association rights worldwide. Available from freeassembly.net
Kiai, M. & Heyns, C. (2016). 10 principles for the proper management of assemblies, Implementation Checklist: A step-by-step checklist for monitoring implementation of the practical recommendations on the management of assemblies report by United Nations Special Rapporteurs Maina Kiai and Christof Heyns (A/HRC/31/66). UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Retrieved from http://freeassembly.net/reports/managing-assemblies-checklist/
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2007). Implementation handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Fully rev. 3rd ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: UNICEF.
United Nations Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) (2012). Human Rights Indicators: A Guide to Measurement and Implementation (HR/PUB/12/5). Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Human_rights_indicators_en.pdf

Glossary/key words

Child and youth led organisations
Organisations must be autonomous and independent of adults and governments, and free of politial control or manipulation (Lansdown, 2011). “Enable children to organise among themselves to idenitfy those issues of concern to them and to determine how to take action to address them” (Lansdown, 2011). “In many countries throughout the world, children are now actively involved in developing their own forums, such as working children’s unions, student unions, parliaments, clubs and other bodies. Governments need to support these developments and can play an active role in ensuring that there is a legal framework conducive to the establishment of child-led organisations. They can provide financial support, and also give recognition to such bodies by establishing clear guidelines on how the views presented by children through such bodies will be taken into account in the formal political process and ensuring that children are provided with adequate responses in relation to their proposals” (Lansdown, 2011). “Child-led associations can develop social awareness and organisational skills of children” (Madoerin, 2008).

Article 15 Indicator Tables